Huge Prizemoney Increases For Queensland Greyhound Racing Announced

Greyhound racing in Queensland has been given a much needed injection with the announcement of substantial prizemoney increases this week.

While opposition to the development of a new greyhound track at Logan is growing (the Queensland government said in a statement as recently as June that it was still going ahead), the prizemoney increase is a positive step forward for greyhound racing in the Sunshine State.

Racing Queensland has just announced a prizemoney boost across all codes of racing in Queensland and it is the result of a new wagering deal with Tatts Bet. In a statement, Queensland All Codes Racing Industry Board Chairman Kevin Dixon said:

“Based on the increases coming into effect on October 1, overall prizemoney year on year will increase by 50 per cent for greyhounds, 20 per cent for thoroughbreds and 16 per cent for harness racing.

These improvements were devised with a new allocation strategy, which determines prizemoney based on each code’s individual revenue less the costs they incur. This means when one code is performing well, they will directly benefit from their success and not be impacted by other codes.”

The key improvements from October 1, 2014 for greyhound racing are:

– Metro Thursday racing becomes nationally competitive with a 54% increase to graded races to $7,500, a 51% increase to 710m graded races to $8,000, and a 34% increase to Open races to $9,500.

– Class 3 racing at both Ipswich and Brisbane increasing 76% for graded races to $2,250 and 43% for maiden races to $1,750. Class 2 racing will also receive similar increases.

– Class 6 racing in Rockhampton and Townsville increasing 49% for Open races to $1,750 and 30% for Graded Races to $1,200 and Country racing up 40% to $800.

Mr Dixon said the new wagering deal with Tatts Bet had paved the way for the prizemoney increases, which would
only be amplified by the recent improvements to QTIS and soon-to-be announced improvements to the other breeding
schemes.

“Once the wagering deal was finalised, we were able to look at the big picture and determine where we could invest
and expend that money to give our participants the best possible return on their investment,” Mr Dixon said.

“The best part of the new deal is, though, that if the racing industry pulls together and performs, increases like these will continue to flow in the future.”

“Prizemoney was the obvious and most sought after improvement, and now we will work closely with our stakeholder
groups to ensure future allocations of funding continue to address the needs of the industry.”

Minister for Racing Steve Dickson said the increases to prizemoney marked a major milestone in the Government’s
commitment to reinvigorate the racing industry in Queensland.

“Prizemoney increases in all three codes across the state have always been the goal and today we have seen just
how bright the future is for our participants,” Mr Dickson said.

The new prizemoney structure has been achieved because of the terrific wagering deal recently secured with Tatts,
and builds on the success of the first phase of our infrastructure strategy, and the stabilisation of the administrative part of the organisation.

“The reinvigoration of the industry is well underway and we will continue to work with Racing Queensland and industry participants to ensure it continues.”

It’s great to see that Queensland is intending to reward each individual code according to performance. This is exactly what the greyhound industry is fighting for in NSW and what should be the case nation wide. Kudos Queensland and well done for providing Queensland participants with this big boost that was definitely needed.

One well known QLD breeder summed it up perfectly with the following –

“I don’t get to say this too often, but I think today is a great day to be a greyhound owner in Queensland. Massive prizemoney boost announced from 1/10/14, with country, provincial TAB, & City meetings all to receive significant increases. Well done to all concerned.”